Jens Sørensen - The Last Bohemian

Bakken’s Bohemian

With a colourful palette, Jens Sørensen’s paintings depict the vibrant life around Bakken and tattered tents under the green treetops. Just as the Parisian artists Touluouse-Lautrec, Degas and Picasso, Jens Søresen was fascinated with circus life and the delirious imaginations of the bohemian’s free life.

Like a true bohemian, he oscillated between the small Copenhagen dives and entertainment available at Bakken, where he painted the crowds and carousels in strong colours and with an expressive stroke.

During his contemporary times Sørensen was both famous and notorious for his extraordinary use of colour, which could not be held down by the teachings of the Art Academy. In 1933 his spontaneous style was rewarded with the highly esteemed Eckersberg medal, which had also been given to key artists within the Danish art world such as Michael Ancher and Olaf Rude.

Self-Deprecating Humour

As a contrast to his gaudy landscapes and joyful scenes from Bakken, Jens Sørensen's self-portraits display a more quiet and self-deprecating humour. With sad eyes and often a chewed-out cigar in one corner of the mouth, the painter gazes morosely out through the tobacco smoke. He considers himself as the last of the romantics, and the melancholy inherent to the self-portraits may suggest an awareness of time running out for the Bohemian painters.

View the selection of Jens Sørensen's works

With the online theme auction in week 18, we offer a wide range of Jens Sørensen's works that range from colouristic landscapes and melancholic self-portraits to happy images from Bakken that reminds the viewer of a brief dream of summer in the countryside of Dyrehaven.